On June 30, 2025, following court hearing on the Drake-UMG legal tussle, Drake’s legal team decided to appear in front of a federal judge in Manhattan. The lawyers urged the court to move ahead and proceed with Drake’s defamation case against Universal Media Group, which was filed following the popular Drake-Kendrick diss battle.
In the initial hearing itself, questions were raised about the nature of the lyrics: is it slander, or “trash talk” taken to the extreme.
In the aftermath of the Manhattan appeal following the trial, a spokesperson for Drake has issued the following statement:
āUMG is desperate to see this case not move forward because the company canāt hide its misconduct in a courtroom the way it does in the boardroom. Soon, in addition to facing concerned regulators and investors, the leadership of musicās most powerful label will have to answer for the damage it has caused to every artist that has been silenced, exploited, endangered or discarded.ā
So far in the whole fiasco, UMG has maintained its position wherein they feel that Drake is pursuing the case not because he feels wronged on a professional front, but rather for having lost a rap battle to another artist. UMG has also maintained the position that Drake, too, has often used language he seeks to criticise.
Of course, Drake’s team thinks otherwise — as has been made clear by the freshly issued statement. Stay tuned for more updates on the case as it unravels.
